I woke somewhat early today, in time to chat a little bit with the other cyclists in the hiker-biker area. I have since forgotten their names and what we talked about, but I do have this picture of them!
Shortly into today's ride I met another touring cyclist, and we did the whole side-of-the-road chat thing. (For anyone unaware, the usual thing two touring cyclists do when meeting is pull over to one side of the road and trade information. Topics range from formalities - where are you going, where did you start,etc - to the far more useful trade of road details. Many of the interesting places I have stopped were learned of in these roadside chats.) When I joked about how I was going to make it to Lander, Wyoming in three days on 60 dollars he became rather pensive and told me "I don't think you're going to be able to make that..." And then he gave me $20, on condition I pay him back via Paypal. Super great guy no!? (Check out his blog at Steve's Journal.)
In other news, there was much scenery to be had today. I got to see tons of Geysers and even got 5 feet from a bison!
I also got to see Old Faithful, which was...weird. I didn't really expect it to be the mercantile [please fix this, I dont't like the word. Something meaning stores-y] hub of Yellowstone, but there you have it, stores everywhere. Old Faithful was kinda unimpressive too. I mean, yeah, its reliable and all that. but the eruption was rather unimpressive and only lasted 4 minutes...
...However...I was just sitting around relaxing for a while in front of Castle Geyser when THIS happened.
These much larger geysers have time intervals at which they can go off, in Castle's case I happened to be sitting in at just the right spot of that 2 hour block. It was much larger, and just seemed to keep going and going, which is when I heard the radio of a nearby watcher go "Castle is a Major, I repeat, Castle is a Major." I just had to ask.
She told me that a "Major" is an eruption in which all of the water in the geyser is let out, even the steam. As a result, the geyser is much more predictable in it's next eruption; they know exactly how much water was left inside when it finished - none. Furthermore, that means that after the geyser is finished shooting water it goes into a steam phase, which she thought was much more impressive. I would have to agree.
I also crossed the Great Divide a grand total of three times! Every time I saw other people there taking pictures and helped them get their whole family in the picture in return for taking a picture of me.
When I finally pulled into camp for the night I met up with another touring cyclist and pulled into a nearby campground. We traded information, apparently she was doing a shorter bike tour focused on beer: she was essentially riding from brewery to brewery, sampling their wares. She even had a flask mounted to her bike! Styling!
Later another camper pulled up - a fisherman and the three of us spent the night talking around a campfire. (When we managed to finally get one to light by using wood gathered by another set of campers) All in all it was a good day!
P.S.
Some pictures of Yellowstone, the good...
And the bad? (This devastation was caused by a massive forest fire many years ago)
Bill PSA:
So I've been reluctant to mention the fact that I actually name my bikes before to anyone – it seemed kinda embarrassing. Which is why I am going to publish this on the internet, for EVERYONE to see. Makes perfect sense. Anyway, this touring bike was recently (at this point in the trip) named, so I figured I'd tell you all what I named my bikes and why.
I'll start with my Cannondale. My CAAD9 5 is a lightweight racing bike, upon which I am able to hit simply beautiful speeds and, when everything goes right, it simply feels like I am flying across the road. Of course, that is only when everything goes right. She is extremely temperamental. If I'm not pedaling just right or I haven't taken good enough care of the bike recently she gets finicky and starts to act up. In this I have always viewed her as something akin to a (stereotypical) girlfriend (metaphor you jerk friends of mine) – she is very high maintenance, requires a lot of attention, but yields incredible rewards when you do your part right. As such, her name is Alae Ventosa, Latin (fem.) for Swift Wings.
In contrast, my Trek 520 touring bike is sturdy, tough, and able to take a beating. I pull a trailer with an extra 40-50 pounds of weight, ride it over mountains, through dirt and gravel roads, and put down 60-70 miles a day. I don't have the time to take adequate care of it, and some of the supplies (notably degreaser) are to heavy to carry altogether. Despite all his, the bike trucks on; I have had no major breakdowns thus far on my trip. When something does go wrong, it is never so terrible that I cannot keep riding until I get to the next bike shop – sometimes days away. Yes, he doesn't go that fast, but he is sturdy, and I view him as an ally thus far on the trip. As such, his name is Amicus Valens. Latin (mas.) for Strong Comrade.
Please don't mock me too much for this guys. (You know who you are)
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